Final Fantasy VII is the gift that keeps on giving. While many have certainly beaten the game at least once, few have actually completed it one hundred percent. Seeing all there is to see is a monumental effort, and the three-disc journey holds a wide array of secrets.
The following list will detail ten side quests hidden within the game that even avid fans may have missed. With the remake coming out relatively soon, this is the last chance to clean house before the new version hits shelves. There's no telling how many of these will make it into the remake, after all.
10 Kalm Traveler
On the second floor of the furthest house to the right sits the Kalm Traveler. He asks for three specific items; the Guide Book, Desert Rose, and Earth Harp. The first can be found by using Morph on a Ghost Ship in Junon. The second and third are earned by beating Ruby and Emerald Weapon.
The Guide Book earns players the Underwater Materia, which is vital in defeating Emerald Weapon. Desert Rose nets a gold chocobo, while the Earth Harp grants the Master Command, Master Summon, and Master Magic Materia. The last is an especially helpful reward, but it would have been a lot more useful before fighting the hardest superboss.
9 Materia Thief In Wutai
Entering Wutai after acquiring Yuffie will trigger this side quest. Shinra soldiers ambush the party and after the battle, all materia is missing along with Yuffie. They track her down, but she is eventually kidnapped by Don Corneo, so the crew mount a rescue operation. Afterwards, Yuffie is grateful and gracious enough to return the stolen property. Cloud is awfully forgiving to let her waltz back into the party after wasting so much time.
8 The Sunken Gelnika
After getting the submarine, the party can board this crashed Shinra plane. The underwater area isn't massive, so it shouldn't be too hard to find, but check a little way's south of Costa del Sol. Inside the ship leads to a small confrontation with Rude and Reno. Besides housing the game's strongest enemies, a bevy of useful items also lie in wait. Cid's ultimate Limit Break, Highwind, and the Hades Materia are hidden within. Before taking on some of the optional superbosses, it is best to spend some time here and grind out some levels.
7 Wutai Pagoda
After getting all the Materia back, don't leave Wutai just yet. Inside the Pagoda at the end of town is a series of small boss fights culminating in a bout with Godo.
Doing these encounters nets two useful items: the Leviathan Summon and All Creation, Yuffie's final Limit Break. Make sure the thief is powered up adequately, because she must take on Godo all by herself.
6 Ancient Forest
Players see the Ancient Forest long before they can actually access it. Near Cosmo Canyon one will notice a weird dome atop an unreachable plateau. Come back after at least breeding a green chocobo to enter. Inside are a series of light puzzles which net neat items. Slash-All is a particularly useful Materia within this forest. Enemies have a notably high evasion, so keep that in mind when prepping the party. Another way to get here is by defeating Ultimate Weapon later in the game. When he falls from the sky, he leaves a crater, which opens up a footpath to the forest.
5 Materia Caves
These are four different caves scattered throughout the world. Reaching all of them requires a gold chocobo. Breeding this iconic fictional animal is quite the endeavor, but it is necessary to stand a chance against the optional bosses.
Inside these caves are the four most powerful Materia in the game: Mime, Quadra Magic, HP<->MP, and Knights of the Round. The latter summon in particular will make short work of the last boss, and is an impressive, if overly drawn-out, visual spectacle.
4 Turtle's Paradise Flyers
Turtle's Paradise is a bar inside Wutai which has a seemingly crack marketing team capable of spreading the word about this humble bar throughout the globe. Players know this because of the six flyers scattered about the world. Reading them and then going to the bar completes a side quest and nets Cloud several Source items and a Megalixir. The former are important because they permanently raise one attribute. A couple of the flyers are in Midgar, so missing them during the opening hours will make the quest impossible to complete until they return in disc two.
3 Cloud's Flashback
After Cloud rejoins the party, head back to the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim to trigger an additional flashback scene where he and Zack escape Shinra custody. It's a fairly beefy sequence as well, though no gameplay occurs. They hitch a ride on a truck, but eventually the corporation catches up with them, and Zack falls in battle defending Cloud. Knowing Zack's fate made every second of Crisis Core on the PSP gut-wrenching. The only way to save him is to never beat it.
2 Master Materia
Knowing how to do this one isn't the hard part; it's having the patience to actually go through with it that'll test fans' mettle. Three Master Materia exist: one for magic, summons, and command skills. For each, the player must level up all the Materia of a particular class. Then they have to head to Cosmo Canyon into Bugenhagen's observatory where they can blend the Materia together for the Master Materia. Leveling up the Materia takes forever, but doing so gives a distinct advantage over Emerald and Ruby Weapon.
1 Great Gospel
Great Gospel is Aerith's final Limit Break. Despite the short time she is with the party, it is one of the hardest final moves to acquire. The method of getting it is weird and obscure, but it involves finding the man in the Sleeping Cave who will gift Mythril if the amount of battles fought ends with the digits 11, 33, 55, or 99. Then, give the Mythril to the weapon's merchant in a house near Gongaga, which is unreachable until getting the Tiny Bronco. Great Gospel is in the chest upstairs. Considering her limited stay in the game, it is up to the player to decide if it is worth all the trouble to get the move.